TV on the Radio, fronted by Brooklyn artiste Tunde Adebimpe, is simultaneously progressive and regressive — a forward-looking throwback that’s defined by its ambiguity. Unlike all but a few recent albums, Return to Cookie Mountain, the outfit’s latest full-length, is less a collection of songs than an overweening sonic statement…
If funkmaster Isaac Hayes became a member of Tortoise, the resulting collaboration might sound like the psychedelic dub of Sound Tribe Sector 9. Mixing metaphysical mysticism with jazz aesthetics and electronica, the Georgia five-piece traffics in spacey jam rock that’s original, danceable and completely captivating. Cosmic guitars, crackling laptop effects,…
All right, dig it: It’s a Saturday night. I’m at Club Boca (1521 Marion Street) for Disintegration, the club’s weekly goth night. As I walk in, I spy a couple entangled at the bar, laying the groundwork for what will inevitably end in coitus later on. He’s got his arms…
When May Riots first broke out on the scene five years ago, the band was a likable, if splintery, garage-inflected indie-rock act. Envisioning something more expansive and sonically adventurous, founding member/guitarist/vocalist Moses Montalvo shelved the project for a few years before reassembling it last year and emerging with a heady,…
Have you heard about Hallmark’s new line of greeting cards? It’s called Journeys, and there are 176 different designs in the collection, each with a unique, unorthodox message intended to address a range of difficult-to-broach subjects, from reaching out to someone dealing with cancer to offering words of encouragement to…
In the States,” Tim Smith confesses, “I’m still worried it’ll slip through the cracks again.” Midlake’s lead singer is referring to his band’s most recent effort, The Trials of Van Occupanther, released last summer on Bella Union. To anyone who has heard the album, this sentiment couldn’t sound more ridiculous…
At press time, the official South by Southwest website listed only four Colorado bands (five, if you count the Apples in Stereo, which, as much as we’d happily claim that act, hasn’t been based here for quite some time) slated to perform at this year’s festival. Those artists — the…
Most assessments of Yours to Keep, the first solo disc by Albert Hammond Jr., have focused more on the singer/guitarist’s main band, the Strokes, than on the recording itself. Hammond isn’t surprised, but neither is he impressed by the level of analysis. “You’ve got to understand the way most people…
Stuff you need to know to avoid ostracism: Cred Sheet is a periodic gauge of cultural stimuli for those unwilling or unable to think about this shit for a living 24/7. (Note: These people are often smarter and better compensated than those who are willing and able.) It seeks to…
Ralph Alessi’s latest effort, Look, is his most accessible work to date. A bit of a departure for the trumpeter, the album — which also features Ravi Coltrane (son of John Coltrane) on tenor sax and pianist Andy Milne — exhibits a clarity and focused command in his delivery. Alessi,…
Where !!!’s last release, Louden Up Now, sounded like a Ph.D. student’s disconnected deconstructions of Klymaxx and post-punk, Myth Takes hews much closer to extended, almost mechanical grooves, give or take the occasional overwrought freakout of diarrhetic songs such as “Bend Over Beethoven.” The act’s range on Myth succeeds in…
On “Trollin’,” The Weirdness’s first cut, Iggy Pop declares, “Rock critics wouldn’t like this at all,” and if he’s right, the Stooges’ improbable comeback will collapse on the starting line. In the end, though, most reviewers are apt to view the disc as an honorable miss, not a flat-out disaster…
For creative people, being lonely can be a boon or a curse; they tend to either dwell on their isolation or channel their feelings into art. Oblio Duo’s latest effort continues down the trail blazed on its debut release. The Flag is filled with the kind of music you imagine…
Many local CDs feel unfinished; they require listeners to imagine what the songs might sound like had they been recorded under optimal conditions, with first-rate production and refined arrangements. But that’s not the case with On to You. The third Mercury Project album is a multi-layered work whose sonics consistently…
Johnny Cash, Ultimate Gospel (Columbia Records). Ultimate Gospel is a great career-spanning collection that shows a side of Johnny Cash’s talent and persona that was often eclipsed by his reputation. Elvis Presley also recorded a lot of gospel tunes, but not even the King can hold a candle to the…
When Taking Back Sunday debuted in 2002 with Tell All Your Friends, there weren’t a gazillion emo bands competing to express the overheated feelings of the nation’s adolescent populace. Instead, only about half that many existed — but of the new acts that have emerged since, most sound remarkably like…
The Canadian invasion continues. As beleaguered United States of Americans feverishly build a wall to protect ourselves from our freeloading, funny-talking neighbors to the north, Malajube amasses an arsenal of prismatic guitar riffs, irrepressible synth licks and infernally catchy tunes that get inside our heads and cause us to smile…
Initially known for his collaborations with Alexander Coe, who performs as Sasha, John Digweed is now firmly established as a mixology superstar in his own right. The reasons for his success include charisma and a keen sense of how to market himself, but his ability to combine accessibility with cool…
The big payoff for most bands comes from touring. Not as a money thing — the majority of small-time outfits come home barely breaking even — but rather in the inimitable experience of plopping into off-the-interstate Waffle Houses, taking in expansive Midwestern landscapes and playing out every night to a…
Evidently, seven is Kurt Elling’s lucky number. The jazz singer has seven Grammy nominations under his belt and has earned nods from Downbeat as Male Vocalist of the Year in its annual critics’ poll for the past seven years running. Good fortune, however, really has nothing to with Elling’s accolades…
Josh Polk knows a thing or two about punk. As the drummer in Whiskey Kiss, he’s well acquainted with the notion that it takes little more than three chords and the truth to get the job done. Booking punk bands, on the other hand, isn’t so turnkey. But that didn’t…
The ill wind wafting down from Greeley generally serves as a reminder of what it smells like around here when the Stock Show is in full swing. Occasionally, though, the unexpected gusts from the north blow in some great musicians, such as Twice Wilted, Reverend Deadeye and Ian Cooke. The…
